Schottky barrier diodes are particularly sensitive to reverse bias-leakage and PIN (P-doped-Intrinsic-N-doped) diodes are not well suited for high frequency applications because the structure and fabrication methods do not allow an amount of control of dopant levels needed for robust low-leakage and high frequency devices. These problems are even more severe when Schottky barrier and PIN diodes are integrated into fabrication methodologies designed to optimize the performance of complimentary metal-oxide-silicon (CMOS) and bipolar (including SiGe) transistors and in CMOS, bipolar and BiCMOS technologies. This leads to poor performance of the circuits utilizing Schottky barrier and PIN diodes.
Therefore, there is a need for improved Schottky barrier and PIN diodes, methods of fabricating improved Schottky barrier and PIN diodes and methods of integrating improved Schottky barrier and PIN diodes into CMOS, bipolar and BiCMOS technologies.